Council to Give Out ‘Pronoun Badges’ in Drive to ‘Educate Public on Trans Identities’

Brighton & Hove City Council will equip staff with badges declaring their “preferred pronouns” as part of a project seeking to educate the public that making assumptions about a person’s sex “can be hurtful and distressing”.

Council and voluntary sector staff in the city will be “encouraged” to wear the badges, which include messages such as “My pronouns are she/her/hers” and “My pronouns are they/their/theirs” when they are distributed in the week leading up to ‘Trans Day of Visibility’ on March 31.

The badges will also be made available at libraries, colleges, and council buildings as part of a month-long drive to “raise awareness of Trans and Non-Binary people and that everyone has their own gender identity”, according to a press release.

Local news reported that 16,000 badges are set to be printed, as they will also be made available at libraries, colleges and a range of public buildings during the month-long campaign.

The badges will come in a range of different designs reading “My pronoun is”, including customisable ones on which people can write their own descriptor.

“Although most people even among the trans and nonbinary communities use ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘they’, some who eschew traditional gender identities – who are, for example, agender, genderqueer, or gender-fluid – prefer to use other gender-neutral pronouns such as ‘xe’, ‘ze’, or ‘sie’,” explained Patrick Strudwick, the ‘LGBT Editor’ of BuzzFeed UK.